The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-01-15
So PER ANNUM.

ing proper anchorage as in providing light
houses. You see along the shore at inter-
vals, apparently white balls upon the rocks,
which on inquiry, you find to be places
where rings and staples have been set into
the rock for vessels to fasten to, and small
steamers are kept plying along the coast to
see that these are always in proper order.
Along the whole north coast there is an
extremely perfect system of telegraphic
communication, cables being laid to the is
lands. This system is used good deal to
notify fishermen when the fish, herring and
others, have "struck in" in large quantities
at any given locality, so that not only may
fishermen go there to catch them, but they
NAV procure barrels and other material for
packing
"The whole coast of Norway presents
exceedingly beautiful and constantly vary
ing scenery, but, on the whole, that to the
south of Trondhjem, in the fjord stunning
into the land at intervals down to the south
point of Norway, is superior to that north
of there. The attraction to most tourists
north of Trondhjem is the midninght sun.
During the season when the sun does not
go below the horizon very good steamers
ply once week from Trondhjem to the
North Cape and back, stopping at Tromsoe,
Bodoe, Hammerfest, and other places.
They take eight days on the round trip;
they are very comfortable, bu5 are apt to
be overcrowded. As they go night and day
the traveller loses some portions of the
scenery, for, though there is no darkness,
he is human and must have some sleep.
Much of the scenery along this coast is
exceedingly beautiful; doubt if there is
any finer in the world than the snowy,
craggy peaks of the Lofoden Islands. 1t
is close by the southern point of these that
the famous Malstrom is found. Its dan
gers are now known to have been greatly
exaggerated; with increased knowledge and
modes of navigation it is not to be dreaded
GAS general thing it may be said that
from Bodoe to the North Cape the sun
does not go below the horizon froAPabout
the 10th of June to~tffe Both of July.
The North kGape-has no particular advan-
tages for seeing the midnight sun over other
points, except that it is the most northerly
point in Norway; the high bluff is 800 or
1000 feet high. From it you look off
upon the Arctic Ocean and see the sun at
midnight apparently gliding along the edge
of the water. But you can get equally
fine views of it from the unbroken sea
further south, particularly among the Lo-
foden Islands, and l should doubt whether
to anybody having command of his con-
veyance as yachtsman has, the trip to the
North Cape sufficiently repays the time and
expense.
"a view of the midnight sun is very Gu
rious. You see the sun apparently going
! dewaI toward the horizon very much asany
well regulated sun would do until B or a
o'clock in the afternoon, when it seems to
cease approaching the horizon except very
slowly, and, as it were, to coast along the
horizon, getting over from the west where
it is supposed to set, to the east where 1t is
supposed to rise. Ofcourse when you have
good weather you see the sun continuously
for eighty or hundred hours, and you
come to regard the midnight sun as a little
hit of A nuisance. Even in those portions
of the coast where, during that part of the
Summer. the sun does sink for short time
below the horizon there is no darkness.
Animals seem to 90 discreetly to sleep at the
proper hours, as what we call evening ap
proaches, but there seems to be no time OF
the night when the people, or some of them,
are not up and moving about on business
or from curiosity. have frequently turned
in after midnight when there remained sit
ting upon the shore, men, women, and small
children, who seemed to be doing nothing
but looking at and discussing the yacht.
In such places as Christiansund and Ber-
gen boats seem plyiugg-about you all night.
L~-sQneis ideas of geography get little
cleared up by travelling in Norway. In
the first place, when you are at the North
Cape you find yourself in latitude 10 or
thereabout, and are then less than 500
miles south of Spitzbergen, which we are
accustomed to consider as an arctic region.
OF the 400 or 43o of latitude which inter-
vene between New York and the highest
point toward the north pole which man
has as yet been able to penetrate, the trav-
eler at North Cape is more than two-thirds
of the distance, yet to that point one gets
with entire comfort The latitude of the
North Cape is considerably above that Of
Iceland, and is above large portions OF
Greenland. 1t is even above that of Behr-
ipe Strait, so different is the climate there
from that on the Pacific coast, result
which every one ascribes to the effect of
the Gulf Stream. Then again, the coast
of Norway trends SO constantly yet SO grad
ually to the east, that when you get to the
North Cape you are astonished to find
yourself to the east of Greece, and if not as
far as Constantinople certainly as far as
Bucharest, while you are within 30 miles
or the reabout of the Russian frontier.
"The fjords of Norway with their
branches would require many months to
thoroughly explore them, and would fur
nish a constant variation of scenery and
compel any one who has any appreciation
of nature to exhaust all the admiratory
adiectives in the dictionary. Of course in
our five weeks time, which included trip